Last week, Newsnight editor Ian Katz mistakenly made public a Twitter comment intended to be private. In describing the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury as “boring, snoring Rachel Reeves”, he went beyond embarrassing himself and his programme, he pointed up a tendency which diminishes a great deal more than politics.

The astonishing failure of humanity and empathy apparent in the content of the Welfare Reform Bill and in the conduct of much of the parliamentary debate around it, reflects poorly on our politicians, says Jill Segger. She suggests that our adversarial and excessively partisan politics creates a culture in which MPs thrive by denying their better selves.

Point-scoring and opportunist politics alienates the electorate, says Jill Segger. If the "new politics" of May 2010 is to have any meaning, politicians and party activists must find a way of combining the legitimate battle of ideas with a more consensual and creative approach to the common good.